NEW PLAN For Mansel

Now Mansel:

English. LFFC says; students will develop their ability to think and express their thoughts correctly. Kinds of sentences, punctuation and capitalization rules, recognition of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and prepositions, contractions, antonyms, homonyms, alphabetizing of words, dictionary skills, and writing compositions are all covered throughout the course of the year. Spelling 3 contains 36 weeks of spelling lists with activities. I sold his Primary English Lessons already. So he's coasting right now. He will be playing catch up this year. LFBC will be tough for him, but he'll catch on... eventually.

Literature. THIS I'm excited about. He's devouring everything I find for him to read. LFBC uses the McGuffey readers for 1-6th grade literature. Vocabulary words and definitions; comprehension activities are all found in this course. McGuffey’s Third Eclectic Reader is used for reading comprehension and oral reading. I hope these old books will challenge him.

Math. He had been using LFBC for 1st and 2nd grades. Then I decided to go ALL MFW. So he took the placement test on a bad day. Placed really low... he has flown through his Singapore math. He finished 1B (easy peasy), now is in 2A and almost done with them both in 44 days. LOL So this 3rd grade LFBC math will be GREAT for him. I'm looking forward to it. All basic concepts and skills learned in third grade are reviewed. Place value to millions; English and metric measures; perimeter and area; factoring; adding, subtracting, and multiplying fractions; multiplying three-digit factors; reducing fractions; time lapse; multiples; basic geometric shapes; divisibility rules; five steps in division; reading a thermometer; writing decimals; and word problems are all taught and reviewed. Tori did LFBC math through 4th grade, then I started Saxon. She took a placement test and it said start in the 7/6 book. WOAH... I didn't. LOL she LFBC has good math, if you ask me. I'll probably stick with this through 12th grade. For only $40 a year... how can you beat that? Well -- free would beat it... but the QUALITY is great!

Then for Science, History and all the extras. There is the library. I'm going to get a scope and sequence from LFBC. I'll be checking out from week to week what the 3rd graders would be doing that week in science and history. Then we'll make our library book list from that S&S. I really like the idea of a book basket. Dan suggested I concentrate on the 3r's for the boys for now. So Literature (reading) English (writing) and Math (arithmetic). There ya have it. No art, no music. OK -- so we do those things in our day... just not "formal" class.

Mansel will be able to do most of the workbooks himself, but will really need to be monitored to not day dream. He'll stay in the same room as I while doing his school work. Now -- I think I'll use a timer with him and he'll work for 20 minutes at a time, taking a break in between each subject. I'll let him decide if he wants to work on each subject several times a day... or 1 subject per day... several times a day. We'll see... he can feel like he has choices as well.. but he'll be doing math and spelling every day. No choice there.

Week 1 & 2

Woah... time got away from me. How did that happen?

I know... I put my computer time in the evening... and it keeps getting bumped for other things. For crying out loud... I love my computer time. Oh well -- I'll try to keep good notes and get on here when I can.

So -- we started out with a bang. EVERY DAY of the first week we started on-time and finished every subject.

Week 2?? Funny you should ask. I went to ladies retreat -- slept only 3 hours. So I came home and slept 10.5 hours on Saturday night... then took a 3 hour nap on Sunday. Hmmm... Monday... I really felt like I needed another nap. Whats up with that? Oh... hey... I think I have a UTI. Yikes... went to the doctor Monday afternoon -- YEP... confirmed. Got one. So -- I've been sort of tired this week. We haven't started on time at all this week. I've taken a nap every day... but today's was only 10 mintues. I dozed off at the library too... I asked Tori if I snored... she said I didn't.

But lets review -- shall we?

I going to talk about Milo first. He is really not liking 100 EZ Lessons at all. I'm trying to decide now it if is a character issue... this is too hard, I don't want to do it. Or if it is too hard and he shouldn't HAVE to do it. Maybe 100 EZ lessons isn't a good fit for him. I've heard moms say their kids don't remember the stuff.. .they have to go back and review. Their kids hate it. It moves too slow. We aren't having any of those issues. If we sit down with little to no distractions -- he gets it. He remembers all the new stuff we do. Even if we skip doing 100 EZ lessons for 4 days or more. (Like Friday, Sat, Sun).... OK that's only 3 days. But he is retaining and learning. I THINK it's a character issue. We are really struggling with his eating. He is MOST particular. I'm an ogre, and make him sit until he eats. Or he doesn't get dessert if he doesn't finish his food. No 2nds of the good stuff until he eats the yucky stuff... etc.

So -- he really pushes us. He won't pray for his food. Dan really gets irritated at Milo for not wanting to pray for his food before he eats.

Milo is the middle child. I'm thinking these are attention getters.

SOOO... is 100 EZ lessons struggle an attention getter? I'm going to keep pushing for a few more weeks. We are on lessons 40 something. He is about to take off with his reading. He just doesn't know it yet.

He likes Math -- until it gets hard. I really think I need to crack down on the character issue... Woe is Me feelings. Poor Milo -- he isn't going to like me much in the next few days. :giggle:

Tori is finding 7th grade to be HARD. Math is hard... the very first lesson with the DIVE CD she balked. This is stupid - do I have to do this every day? Yes... now she never asks... she grabs her notebooks and goes right to the computer. I think she is liking the instruction with the CD more than she thought she would. She still doesn't work unprompted very well. If I stop her math at 1 hour, she never restarts on her own to finish 1 lesson in 1 day. School after lunch really drags. She is not up to speed with her Math. I really want us to not get behind on this. I need to figure out how many lessons she needs to do in 1 trimester in order for her to be on time. If she doesn't stay on schedule I think I'll make her do her math through our scheduled breaks.

Thus Apologia Science... she had done 3 days worth of this in 10 days. I need to figure out those days too.

We are on track with our BIBLE, HISTORY, MFW SCIENCE and... and... that's about it. We skipped all the rest of the stuff in some form or another this week. I'm not good at keeping on task when I feel sick. I'm a wimp.

Mansel is flying through Singapore Math. He is doing 3 days worth of work in 1 day. What happened with that is he didn't do well with his placement test.

We did 1st and 2nd grade math with Landmark Freedom Baptist Curriculum. Very good math curriculum. Just not what My Father's World recommends... so I thought I'd switch -- be more streamlined. Order all from one place... get teaching ideas from the discussion forums at the My Father's World web-site. Anyway... We did the switch. I made the mistake of giving him a placement test when his dad was home from work one day.

Mansel didn't want to do it -- so he was fussying... saying it was too hard... he didn't know the stuff. He daddy felt sorry for him. "Maybe it's too hard." Oh hooey... So he let him quit. When I checked it he only got up to level 1B. That's 2nd semester of 2nd grade. Well -- that's a 1/2 year behind where he should be. We start 1B last week. It's EASY PEASY!! That's crazy. I should have retested him. Oh well. I'm making him do it. He'll have to do math during our breaks in order to get caught up. I've told him this -- I told him he whined and slacked during that test -- now he has to pay for it by doing extra work.

Spelling is going well. I like Spelling Power. Tori finally knows how to spell the word tomorrow. I wanted to have a running fit when she finally spelled that correctly! Mansel is progressing. Tori is -- ok -- don't mentino this to her... but Mansel is on level 1, group 9. Tori is on level 2, group 13. They started out in the same group - but Tori being only 1 level ahead of Mansel. She just can not spell very well. But interestingly enough -- she is progressing faster than he is.

That plays right into my theory of... let the kids wait sometimes, they'll catch up.

I'm not starting Danielle with school right now -- trying to concentrate on Milo's reading. When she starts 100 EZ lessons next year... she'll be ready (and probably surpass Milo)... sshhh... I think I have friends who thing that is terrible that I'm not starting Danielle this year (she is still only 4... until Monday). I'm pretty sure she'll catch up and do well.

Tori got some verses to memorize for ProTeens at church... one is a passage we are to be working on right now. We really are stumped by it. Isaih 40:21-31. We were tryign the KJV. Her's is in the NEW KJV. So -- we are starting over with her version and I'm working on this every day. So -- we'll kill to birds with one stone. Get it memorized for school and church. Ü When she does this she will get 50 points. Woo Hoo! And she'll have God's work burned into her heart... most important of all.

We had a funny ART story. The first day of ART Tori was going to "teach". I looked at it for her... um... it was on NUDITY! HA HAAA!!! Too funny... I taught the first class. She has taught the 2nd one though, while I was napping. She said it went fine. I sure hope it did.

Man alive -- this is long. I really need to try to do this once a week, if not more.

Some day I'll post some photos of Tori's 1st experiment from her General Science class. All the kiddos had fun watching. She has told me she likes this class. I'm so glad. I really enjoy science classes too.

Mansel's Schedule

Mansel's schedule looks similar to Tori's, but he will have more free time if he doesn't dawdle. his classes are near as time consuming as hers are. His math lesson shouldn't take him 1 hour, but I've scheduled it for 1 hour. If he completes all his work in the alloted time, he shouldn't have home work when we go to town. So - should and does... that's the difference.

Mansel's 2008-2009 School Year Plans

Mansel will be doing the following. If this looks vaguely familiar -- it's because so much of our school overlaps. My friend Cathy said this about MFW... it's like all of the students are on the same bus. The bus is taking a tour. My 1st grader, Milo, my 3rd grader, Mansel, and my 7th grader, Tori are all headed along the same route. They all hear the same information. Milo is the youngest, he will get the least amount out of, but we keep teaching to the next level, because Mansel will get even more out of it. But don't stop there because Tori will be challenged too and retain the most. But not to worry -- because in 4 years we do the same Bible/History cycle all over again, and they will be challenged even more in those years. The bonus? My non-schoolers who are supposed to be playing with rocks and sticks... they are learning too.

So -- Mansel will be starting 3rd grade in Sunday School.

He will finish up Creation to the Greeks with us and begin Rome to Reformation unit. This includes:

Bible/History

• Rome, the life of Jesus, early church history, Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Reformation from a Christian perspective.
• Bible readings and memory verses.
• Hands-on projects: Make a Roman writing tablet and enjoy a Roman feast, construct a Roman arch, sample foods from the Middle Ages, play Medieval games and more.
• Learn to play chess and construct a cardboard castle.
• Map work, history notebook, and timeline.
• Library book. Daily reading out of the book basket! NOTE: I put all sorts of reading levels in this book basket. From picture books up to adult level reading. I LOVE fining Mansel reading the adult level books. I'm sure a lot of times he's just looking at the pictures, but he has gained an amazing wealth of information from this book basket time. This is one of my favorite features of My Father's World.

Science

• Human body - participate in simple experiments and demonstrations as well as make simple models of body systems.
• Astronomy - explore the universe from a Christian perspective. Includes hands-on activities.
• Weekly nature walk and nature journal.

Read Aloud

• Selected books that are integrated with the study of history to inspire and develop godly character. We will use The Bronze Bow, Twice Freed, Dangerous Journey, and Door in the Wall.

Art and Music

• Enjoy hands-on projects from history.
• Art lessons include drawing as well as Roman, Early Church, and Middle Ages art from a godly perspective, using God and The History of Art .
• Music appreciation lessons focus on Haydn, Beethoven, and Mozart.

Of course vocabulary lessons focus on Latin roots using English from the Roots Up.

Those things are all things we will be doing as a family. We set up our school like a one room school house. Combining as many things as we can. The rest of the list with be done alone, or one on one with Mom.

He will be starting Singapore Math this year. We were using Landmark Freedom Baptist Curriculum for math. It has served us well. But I want to stream line our curriculum as much as possible to line up with My Father's World. I want the ease in ordering and the ease of following the lesson plans as much as possible. So he will begin Singapore Math with textbook 1B. That's where the placement test put him. After he finishes that book he'll begin 2A.

He will be doing book C of the Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting series.

He will continue to do piano lessons on Monday, which includes 20 minutes of piano practice each day. That will be up from him normal 15 minutes.

He will continue on with the Primary Language Lessons, hopefully finishing that book this year.

Last but not least - he will continue to do spelling using the Spelling Power system that we started this spring. We do this together - one on one.

He will not be open enrolled or dual enrolled. I think we'll wait until they enter 7th grade before we start that. Knoxville has the students in middle school starting in 6th grade, but I think we'll still wait until 7th grade for each of scheduling for MOM! They begin more independent learning at this age, so they can be rewarded in this way. More independent learning required of them, so they get more independent recreation as a bonus.

He will also work on his S.S. lesson paper and be memorizing his S.S. verse each week. I write this up on his white board list too each day.